From an op-ed by columnist Kathleen Parker:
A comparison of how the media have treated the two presidents and their faith-based programs during the first six months of their administrations (2001 and 2009) is the subject of a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
The findings suggest a very different standard applied to each president.…
Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (and director of the Evangelicals in Civic Life program) … [says,] “Sure, there’s always a lot going on in Washington with any new administration. But can you imagine the outcry if Bush had hired a 27-year-old Pentecostal preacher to run the faith-based office and surrounded him with a 25-member advisory board made up of people largely sympathetic to his policy agenda?”
…
One may argue, as Bush critics have, that the previous administration similarly tried to advance policy through its faith-based office. What one may not argue is that Obama has been treated to the same scrutiny as his predecessor.
Read it here.
If there is one, is it likely that the next Republican president will reduce the size of the faith-based initiative?